Thinking About God

26/05/21 18:47 Filed in: Young People | SBQM Update

Thinking about God – a session exploring God in Junior Meeting for Worship

This morning (Sunday 23rd May) the young people were exploring the language we use to talk about God and how we think about God – I thought I would share one of the activities we did to generate discussion, conversation and reflection.

The activity was based on the question ‘If God was…what would God be?’

(Adapted from Journey’s in the Spirit – Youth Work edition issue no. 14 2012: Theism and Non-Theism https://together.woodbrooke.org.uk/resource.php?r=JY accessed 23/5/2021)

When looking at colours white, silver, transparent and clear were talked about but also the idea of all colours being one. Interestingly for one young person the colour was ginger, as a young child they always thought of God as ginger and this has stayed with them – this generated conversation around our relationship with God being personal and individual.

Silence came out as the main sound and we talked about Silence in worship not being the absence of sound but something else. Rushing of leaves and birds singing were expressed as an important part of hearing God in nature. Listening for the voice of help and guidance, a holy whisper (Thomas Kelly), were also ideas that were explored.

God can be found in many places and for this group one found God in their bedroom as this is where they pray or talk to god, their ‘God pillow’. Nature was important with one drawing an analogy of a hedge maze – we discussed finding God in the complexities of life and sometimes being too small to see over the top of the hedges. One young person shared how people who are very ill and who might die, sometimes experience a feeling of going down a bright tunnel towards a field of grass and later when they recover describe this experience as walking towards God or heaven, so they thought if God was a place maybe it would a field of grass. Another young person used the analogy of God being like Asgard (Viking heaven) as described in the Thor Marvel movie - Asgard is not a place, it’s a people.

Animals are an important part of biblical imagery and if God was an animal they saw God as an Owl, often unseen but wise; a dove, the symbol of peace; a peregrine falcon as it can speed through the air to be with us; and a Tiger instead of a Lion, because it is strong but not tied up with ideas of power and omnipotence. Finally, a vole also came up as it knows the working of the ground underneath us that we cannot see – the analogy being that God knows more than we can see or comprehend.

I’d like to finish with a quote from Martin Lynn’s book Encountering the light: “For early Friends…..here was the central message of that Quaker Pentecost: that God’s love mediated through the experience of the spirit of Christ, lay within the individual, in the individuals capacity to understand the promptings of God within him or herself” (Lynn, Martin, 2007 p45). The personal relationship we can all have with God means there are many ways we can encounter God, using the full breadth of our language, experience and understanding. Our young people have looked outside the box and seen God in the colour ginger, in a hedge maze, in an owl and peregrine falcon, a holy whisper – the voice of help and guidance.

Megan Corrigan with the Older Group of South Belfast Meeting.

Friends to All

25/05/21 14:55 Filed in: Quaker Service

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Irish Quakers were the subject of a very interesting article in Scope Magazine this edition. "Friends to all: the remarkable story of the Quakers in Ireland" can be read at https://scopeni.nicva.org/article/friends-to-all-the-remarkable-story-of-the-quakers-in-ireland

Much it focuses on Quaker Service.

M&O May Update

04/05/21 09:56

A regular blog about a Committee meeting is not perhaps the most enticing prospect! But we are really keen to involve everyone in the development of our Meeting's life. So please have a read, and talk to us about any points that strike you.

As well as sorting ourselves out as a new Committee - the rest of us are particularly delighted that Jonathan has agreed to to be our M&O Clerk - and getting our working arrangements in order, our current focus is how we help the Meeting get back to a more normal way, using the Meeting House and establishing our regular activities. So we are working up a short survey, to gain everyone's views. We should be getting it to you in the coming weeks, so please when you get it, take a moment and send us your thoughts. Otherwise we will keep on gently nagging you to reply! And if there are issues that are not covered, do use the survey to tell us. Or if you prefer, chat to any of us. We really want to hear.

A related issue that we are starting to mull over is when and how can we meet socially, in a totally safe way. We all hope for a glorious summer (!) and maybe that will give us a safe way to meet, outside, with lots of fresh air.

The Ministry and Oversight team - Felicity, Jonathan, Kerry, Marie, Michael, Sylvia and Will

May's Monthly Readings

01/05/21 08:15 Filed in: Advices & Queries

In vocal ministry, the sharing of spiritual experience and insights can be a way through which fresh understanding is conveyed to others. Receive the ministry in a loving spirit, avoiding hurtful criticism.

IYM General Christian Counsel

When you are preoccupied and distracted in meeting let wayward and disturbing thoughts give way quietly to your awareness of God’s presence among us and in the world. Receive the vocal ministry of others in a tender and creative spirit. Reach for the meaning deep within it, recognising that even if it is not God’s word for you, it may be so for others. Remember that we all share responsibility for the meeting for worship whether our ministry is in silence or through the spoken word.

BYM Advices & Queries

SOUTH BELFAST QUAKERS

Quakers (or the Religious Society of Friends as they are also known), have held Meetings for Worship in Ireland since 1654. After a previous failed attempt to establish a lasting Belfast Meeting around 1665, the first permanent Belfast Quaker Meeting was established in 1799, and in 1810 it moved to Brewery Lane, now known as Frederick Street. It wasn’t until 1956 that a second Meeting was approved for Friends who lived in Belfast, this time based in the south of the city. South Belfast Meeting House is an active Meeting with approximately 45 adult members and attenders who worship together each Sunday. Children & Young People also play a large part in our meeting, and we have on average 22, 1-18 year olds joining us for the last 10 mins of our worship, after their own activities.

Meeting for Worship takes place at 10.45am each Sunday at our meeting house ( see address and directions on the contact page )

Alternatively you can join us on Zoom with the following details:

Meeting iD: 4613195026
Pass: 143412

South Belfast Meeting is part of the larger Ireland Yearly Meeting (see details of Quakers in Ireland below)